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Regular cane sugar (sucrose) is made of two-sugar molecules bound tightly together -- glucose and fructose in equal amounts. The enzymes in your digestive tract must break down the sucrose into glucose and fructose, which are then absorbed into the body.

HFCS also consists of glucose and fructose, not in a 50-50 ratio, but a 55-45 fructose to glucose ratio in an unbound form. Fructose is sweeter than glucose. And HFCS is cheaper than sugar because of the government farm bill corn subsidies. Products with HFCS are sweeter and cheaper than products made with cane sugar. This allowed for the average soda size to balloon from eight ounces to 20 ounces with little financial costs to manufacturers, but great human costs of increased obesity, diabetes and chronic disease.

Now back to biochemistry. Since there is there is no chemical bond between them, no digestion is required, so they are more rapidly absorbed into your blood stream. Fructose goes right to the liver and triggers lipogenesis (the production of fats like triglycerides and cholesterol). This is why it is the major cause of liver damage in this country and causes a condition called "fatty liver," which affects 70 million people. The rapidly absorbed glucose triggers big spikes in insulin -- our body's major fat storage hormone. Both of these features of HFCS lead to increased metabolic disturbances that drive increases in appetite, weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia and more.

But there was one more thing I learned during lunch with Dr. Bruce Ames. Research done by his group at the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute found that free fructose from HFCS requires more energy to be absorbed by the gut and soaks up two phosphorous molecules from ATP (our body's energy source). This depletes the energy fuel source or ATP in our gut required to maintain the integrity of our intestinal lining.

A Princeton University research team has demonstrated that all sweeteners are not equal when it comes to weight gain: Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.

In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides.

It has to be taken in to account as well that Americans, in general, tend to consume more sugar now than they did years ago and it has been suggested on various internet sites that the consumption of sugar is around 10% of total calories in their diet; pretty sure some will be higher. Obviously, other countries will also have higher intakes of sugar because that's the way things have gone but I haven't read any stats for those.

HFCS, from what I read, is banned in the UK, or at least it was banned whether that has changed I have no idea but it's not an ingredient that I've come across in foods here; though, it could easily appear under a different name.